BAGHDAD -- The U.S. Army said Thursday 12 al-Qaida in Iraq militants were killed and 37 detained in a multiday operation that also freed a hostage.

An Army spokesman said the operation, conducted Saturday through Tuesday, near Muqdadiyah in the Diyala River Valley involved multiple confrontations with armed militants believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq, KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, reported Thursday.

The hostage, an Iraqi man, was found Monday in a locked room at a bomb-making facility and appeared to have been beaten during his days-long captivity, the Army said. He was taken to a military medical facility for treatment.

The U.S. military said earlier Thursday a U.S.-Iraqi raid on a suspected terror cell in a city southeast of Baghdad resulted in 11 militants being killed.

The firefight began when a coalition convoy came under fire in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, CNN reported. The military statement said as a result of the deaths, no suspected were detained.

In Baghdad, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials reported two insurgent bombings Thursday. The first was planted under a minibus and killed two passengers and injured 12 others, the ministry said. The second happened 30 minutes later when a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi police convoy passed. Two civilians and two police officers were hurt in the blast, the report said.